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| Johnny Appleseed wandered the country, barefooted with a tin can for a hat |
Like
Daniel Boone, Davy Crockett, and other frontier legends, Johnny Appleseed is
one of those mythical characters every schoolchild learns about. But unfortunately, his story has become so entwined
in the folklore surrounding him that it’s hard to unravel truth from fiction.
He
was born John Chapman in Leonidas, Massachusetts, on September 26, 1774. His
father served as a Minuteman in the
Revolutionary War. He fought at Bunker
Hill and served with Washington’s troops in New York. Johnny’s mother died in
1776, most likely from tuberculosis.
In
1797 or 1798, Johnny made his way to western Pennsylvania, where he planted his
first orchard on Brokenstraw Creek. A few years later, he lived near French
Creek planting orchards.
Johnny
was a shrewd businessman. He seeded orchards several steps in advance of
settlers moving into new territories, so he could have young apple trees ready
for the immigrants when they arrived.
An article published in Harper’s
New Monthly Magazine said: “Johnny would shoulder his bag of apple seeds,
and with bare feet penetrate to some remote spot that combined the picturesque
and fertility of [the] soil, and there he would plant his seeds, place a slight
inclosure around the place, and leave them to grow until the trees were large
enough to be transplanted by the settlers.”
It
was the method he employed for the rest of his life. First, Johnny studied
settlement trends, anticipating where new territories would open—constantly
speculating where the settlers would be two or three years out. Then he
gathered his leather bags of apple seeds and trudged off to some remote
wilderness area to plant his new orchard. After Johnny planted his seeds, he
built a fence of logs, fallen timbers, or brush around them. Finally, he
returned at regular intervals to mend the fences, check up on his trees, and,
when the time was right—sold his trees for an average price of five or six
cents each.
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| Johhny planted his orchards well before new settlers came to an area |
After Johnny had done all this work, he sold his trees when possible. He often gave them to people who couldn’t afford them or traded them for food and castoff clothes. Money wasn’t his main objective. Johnny was all about getting his trees into the hands of people who needed them.
Looks and fashion
were unimportant to Johnny. He looked like a crazed lunatic or the perennial Wildman of the Wilderness. Johnny “had
long dark hair, a scraggly beard that was never
shaved, and keen black eyes that sparkled with a peculiar brightness.”
He went everywhere barefoot, even in the harshest winters, though sometimes he
was seen walking with a boot on one foot and a shoe upon the other. In later
years, “his principal garment was a
coffee sack, in which he cut holes for his arms to pass through.” And on his
head, he wore a tin pan as his hat.
His strange looks didn’t scare people away
from him. From all accounts, the settlers welcomed Johnny into their cabins. Some frontier diaries exist that describe
Johnny’s visits. He was popular with children and adults alike. Young girls
looked forward to his visits, often noting he brought them bright calico cloth
and ribbons. He enthralled the men and boys with stories of his adventures. He enjoyed performing different
feats where he stuck pins and needles into the hardened and leathery skin of
his feet.
At
night, Johnny spread out on the floor of their cabin and read from books
detailing his religion. One woman, who heard him talk, said: “He was undoubtedly a genius.”
The
Indians considered him a great medicine man
and allowed him to travel freely within their lands. That enabled him to save
several settlements from Indian attacks during the War of 1812. In one
instance, Johnny raced thirty miles through the wilderness, stopping at every
cabin between Mansfield and Mount Vernon, Ohio, to warn people of an impending
Indian attack. Undoubtedly, many lives were
saved because of the early warning.
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| Johnny was popular among the settlers he visited |
Johnny was also a man of deep religious conviction. He devoured the religious works of Emanuel Swedenborg, a Swedish scientist turned religious visionary who believed the final judgment of the world had occurred in 1757. After his spiritual awakening, Swedenborg claimed he could visit heaven and hell whenever he wanted and converse with angels and demons. The fundamental principle of his religion was to do good without seeking a reward.
Like
Swedenborg, Johnny claimed he had frequent conversations with angels and
spirits. According to one source, two spirits “of the feminine gender...had
revealed to him that they were to be his wives in a future state...” if he
avoided marrying in this lifetime.
He
was a friend to animals and would buy lame horses, paying someone to feed and
care for them until he could transport them to a safe area or place them with a
kindly owner. He believed every creature and thing
had feelings and refused to cut down
trees or kill insects.
Johnny
visited William Worth in March 1845. He curled up to sleep on the cabin floor
that night and never woke up. After his death,
his legend grew, and it soon became difficult to distinguish fact from fiction.
What we know is that at the time of his death, Johnny Appleseed, a man who cared little for money, had accumulated a small fortune in real estate. He held over 1200 acres in prime orchard land in Western Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana.
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